The $1.2 trillion funding package to keep the federal government open through September includes small increases for key K-12 programs while keeping them in line with other programs. It also includes approximately $100 million in cuts to the U.S. Department of Education's budget.
President Joe Biden signs funding package into law It passed the House on March 22 and the Senate early the next day, averting a partial shutdown. The package combines six annual spending bills to pay for various branches of the federal government that have been operating in stopgap measures since a final budget for fiscal year 2024, which began last October, has not been developed. be.
The Department of Education will receive $79.1 billion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
This is about $100 million less than the department's final fiscal year 2023 budget., a decrease of about 0.2 percent. And it falls far short of the $90 billion Biden requested for the department in his original 2024 budget proposal.he announced a year ago in March 2023.
But despite the overall cuts, lawmakers have made significant changes to Title I grants, which support services for low-income students, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds, which help schools defray special education costs, respectively. provided an increase of $20 million. Title I and IDEA are her two largest federal funds for K-12 schools.
The $20 million increase will bring Title I funding to just above the $18.4 billion allocated to the program in 2023, and IDEA funding to just above the 2023 level of $14.2 billion. .
Details about what portion of the budget would be cut were not immediately available, the Education Department said Wednesday.
Typically, the federal government spends less than 10 percent of the amount each year on public education nationwide.
The Republican-controlled House initially voted to make significant cuts to Title I and eliminate funds that support the preparation, recruitment, and professional development of English language learners and teachers.The spending bill that became law maintains that funding, according to a summary from the Senate Appropriations Committee..
Outside of the Department of Education budget, the spending bill increases funding for Head Start by $275 million over last year, bringing total funding for early childhood programs to $12.3 billion this year.
This additional funding is intended to help address staffing shortages as the program records its highest attrition rate in 20 years., according to a summary from the Appropriations Committee.The Biden administration proposed new rules in the fall that aim to increase Head Start teacher pay in the coming years, bringing it closer to K-12 teacher pay.The changes will require additional funding for Head Start programs, which have served fewer children in recent years.
In his original 2024 budget proposal, Biden called for a $1.1 billion increase over 2023 for programs that serve children living at or near the federal poverty level.
The newly approved spending package also includes funding for the Pentagon budget. Dual enrollment in the agency's kindergarten program for children of military personnel.
The National Association of Secondary School Heads welcomed the new budget.
“This will allow us to increase resources for high-needs students like myself, while increasing resources for high-needs students like myself,” Chris Young, principal of North Country Union High School in Newport, Vermont, and president of the principals' association advocacy group, said in a statement. “We can avoid painful cuts.”
Biden releases budget proposal for fiscal year 2025begins Oct. 1, before lawmakers pass a final spending package for 2024.
In his 2025 budget proposal, which is unlikely to pass a divided Congress as it stands, he asked for $82 billion for the Education Department, an amount that has been raised in previous years to keep it within spending caps the president negotiated last year. This corresponds to a smaller increase than the amount proposed for the previous year. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avoid debt default. These spending caps also apply to the 2024 funding bill.
Biden's 2025 budget proposal includes increases to Title I and IDEA, as well as support for school districts to sustain learning recovery initiatives launched in recent years with support from the $190 billion federal coronavirus relief package. Includes an $8 billion Academic Acceleration Grant Program. The final round of funding is due on September 30th.